Pianist & Video Artist Hypnotically Improvise Together in Real Time in The Metaverse

I just had the most fascinating if totally left field press interview about music in the Metaverse. Which makes this as good a time as any to share this video, depicting one of the more innovative and ambitious metaverse-based music performances I’ve seen in awhile: Tia Rungray (IRL Japanese musician Takayuki Noami) performing hypnotically ambient live piano in Second Life. And with an added hook: As he plays, his collaborator Hebeerryke Caravan projects video images into the virtual world space which accompany the music… in real time.

“The video is based on video clips and other footage shot by Hebeerryke Caravan and projected by him using VJ software with real-time effects,” Tia explains.

The duo shares titles, concepts, and the performance’s general direction beforehand, then improvise around each other during the live performance.</p

“The aim is not to show the film perfectly at the perfect time, but we want our audience to enjoy the ‘ephemerality’ that can only be created at that time and at that moment. Tracing this back leads us to the theme and concept of ‘Ghostmarch’.” (Which as it happens, is the name of his latest album.)

Follow Rungray on Twitter for future performance announcements. And watch his previous show in the virtual desert of the real.